Is it possible that my recent gloom has been entirely a result of tooth decay?

[cthulhie]

Or: SERIOUSLY GO SEE YOUR DENTIST RIGHT NOW GUYSSo I had a dental appointment about two weeks ago. I noted that I had a sort of strange infection-like-thing at the root of tooth I'd had work on almost a decade ago. (A root canal.) He referred me to an endodontist whom I went to see today

Comments

[before_you_go]

Ugh. Despite dental insurance, I've been avoiding this for a long long time. :( Your timing is good, my guilt level is high enough I might actually make an appointment...

[studeronomy]

Ditto, ditto, ditto, and ditto. I've recently acquired dental insurance but have been too afraid to use it. I've been slowly working up the courage, and I think this might have put me over the top. Thanks for noting how quick and painless it was.

[cthulhie]

Oh yeah. General cleanings tend to be more unpleasant than the major work. But your teeth are so smooth afterward! And it's... I don't know. Cleanings aren't fun, but they're so damned rewarding. And if they refer you to someone else, you know something's being taken care that actually needs it.

[sydzg]

Yeah, I agree. Going to the dentist sucks and is sometimes really painful, but if you *don't* go, it's much worse. This now freaks me out so much that I'm a couple months overdue for a cleaning and I'm worrying about it. A couple months!

[somepeople]

Amen, brother. Despite having insurance, and having never missed a 6-month cleaning before in my life, I went about 2 years without one not too long ago because of issues with finding one on the insurance and in my area, and then actually getting an appointment with that dentist. The eventual nasty cleaning that resulted from this neglect *sucked

[nonword]

word. beware incompetence. I can't eat Doritos on the right side of my mouth because my previous dentist twice botched a filling for a cavity I never knew I had. I could eat Doritos before but now I can only eat them with half my mouth, which renders the cheesiest of snacks only about average-cheesy. In fact this affects many other foods besides Doritos, but I specify to make it real for the reader. beware incompetence. and let me know if anyone figures out how to be wary of incompetence.

[meestagoat]

In fact this affects many other foods besides Doritos, but I specify to make it real for the reader.

Truly, Paul, you're a man of the people.

[cthulhie]

This makes me very sad. The concrescence, truly, prompts the sadness.

[nonword]

Also, I dig the idea that (arguably) insignificant health changes fundamentally change self. A part of you was (literally?) rotting. At what point is that significant? When i dislocated my hip I probably severed thousands of tiny nerves. How much self is in the root of a tooth or a nerve fiber? Maybe by some devastating neural mis-organization a fundamental part of my childhood joy resided in my hip.

[cthulhie]

Remember that time you were playing with your cousin in the pool in the backyard of your Aunt and Uncle's house, and you marveled at how the sunlight shone through each of the individual drops when you splashed at each other? Remember how her swimsuit had red polka-dots and you made fun of her and felt bad, but really bad because you knew your aunt and uncle were having a rough spell and this might be the last time that you could visit them at this house?

No?

Exactly.

[samara_air]

what is taken away shall be given back. ie:
remember that time you got drunk and fell off the roof?
Yeah - that's in your hip now.
You never liked that cousin much anyway.

also, it seems wrong in a very fundamental way that you should have face rot UNBEKNOWNST to you. I shudder to think what is even now rotting away inside of me. Besides my black little heart. I mean, given.